A quotation from Montaigne

We readily acknowledge in others an advantage in courage, in bodily strength, in experience, in agility, in beauty; but an advantage in judgment we yield to no one. And the arguments that come from simple natural reasoning in others, we think we would have found if we had merely glanced in that direction.
 
[Nous reconnoissons aysément és autres, l’advantage du courage, de la force corporelle, de l’experience, de la disposition, de la beauté: mais l’advantage du jugement; nous ne le cedons à personne: Et les raisons qui partent du simple discours naturel en autruy, il nous semble qu’il n’a tenu qu’à regarder de ce costé-là, que nous ne les ayons trouvees.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Frame (1943)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

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Montaigne, Michel de - Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), "Of Presumption [De la Presomption]" (1578) [tr. Frame (1943)] | WIST Quotations

We readily acknowledge in others an advantage in courage, in bodily strength, in experience, in agility, in beauty; but an advantage in judgment we yield to no one. And the arguments that come from simple natural reasoning in others, we think we would have found if we had merely glanced…

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A quotation from Bill Watterson

CALVIN: Isn’t it sad how some people’s grip on their lives is so precarious that they’ll embrace any preposterous delusion, rather than face an occasional bleak truth?

Bill Watterson (b. 1958) American cartoonist
Calvin and Hobbes (1987-11-24)

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A quotation from Montaigne

There is another kind of “glory”: conceiving too high an opinion of our worth. This is an undeserved feeling by which we value ourselves, and that makes us think ourselves different than we are, just as the passion of love lends beauties and graces to the object it embraces and makes those smitten by it — with their judgment blurred and altered — find what they love different, and more perfect, than it is.
 
[Il y a une autre sorte de gloire, qui est une trop bonne opinion, que nous concevons de nostre valeur. C’est un’affection inconsideree, dequoy nous nous cherissons, qui nous represente à nous mesmes, autres que nous ne sommes. Comme la passion amoureuse preste des beautez, & des graces, au subject qu’elle embrasse ; & fait que ceux qui en sont espris, trouvent d’un jugement trouble & alteré, ce qu’ils aiment, autre & plus parfait qu’il n’est.]

Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) French essayist
Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), “Of Presumption [De la Presomption]” (1578) [tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012)]

More about (and translations of) this quote: wist.info/montaigne-michel-de/…

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Montaigne, Michel de - Essays, Book 2, ch. 17 (2.17), "Of Presumption [De la Presomption]" (1578) [tr. Atkinson/Sices (2012)] | WIST Quotations

There is another kind of "glory": conceiving too high an opinion of our worth. This is an undeserved feeling by which we value ourselves, and that makes us think ourselves different than we are, just as the passion of love lends beauties and graces to the object it embraces and…

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Everything he says is demonstrably false. He lives in a world of his own creation.

https://loma.ml/display/373ebf56-4269-ab77-9d51-c93436381217

Everything he says is demonstrably false. He lives in a world of his own creation.

https://x.com/DanielLMcAdams/status/2030074189219000339 #Iran #USA #POTUS #disinformation #self delusion #Middle East https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/2...

A quotation from John Adams

Our Passions, Ambition, Avarice, Love, Resentment &c possess so much metaphysical Subtilty and so much overpowering Eloquence, that they insinuate themselves into the Understanding and the Conscience and convert both to their Party. And I may be deceived as much as any of them, when I Say, that Power must never be trusted without a Check.

John Adams (1735–1826) American lawyer, Founding Father, statesman, US President (1797–1801)
Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson

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Adams, John - Letter (1816-02-02) to Thomas Jefferson | WIST Quotations

Our Passions, Ambition, Avarice, Love, Resentment &c possess so much metaphysical Subtilty and so much overpowering Eloquence, that they insinuate themselves into the Understanding and the Conscience and convert both to their Party. And I may be deceived as much as any of them, when I Say, that Power must…

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A quotation from Eric Hoffer

Much of man’s thinking is propaganda of his appetites.

Eric Hoffer (1902-1983) American writer, philosopher, longshoreman
Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 261 (1955)

More about this quote: wist.info/hoffer-eric/82357/

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Hoffer, Eric - Passionate State of Mind, Aphorism 261 (1955) | WIST Quotations

Much of man's thinking is propaganda of his appetites.

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On this day in 2025 (at FB)

#USpol #Trumpizm #HimNotUs #SmokeAndMirror #ResidentEvil #Dictatorships #SelfDelusion #AsymptomaticCarrier
News:
"State department signs off on bombs and missiles sales that the US claims would help Israel ‘defend its borders’"
Comment:
"Course not. He has no interest in ordinary people, as all his other policies demonstrate."
If the latter could be your comment, I need to say something to you.
Here, in Europe (especially at the "wrong side of The Iron Curtain"), we are pretty well-versed in dictatorships. Franco, Mussolini, Hitler, Stalin, now Łukaszenka and Putin... They come and they go like in a political Hurricane Alley of sorts, so we know them well (those who chose to know, at least).
And there is a particular takeaway lesson I want to convey here:

It is not him. It never was. It is us.


Whoever's name and face appears as the figurehead of the "current edition", is just a token. The dictatorship is us all. It is the crew that makes the ship.
If you work for him, you are him.
If you respect people who are him, you are him.
If you talk to your neighbour, who is him, you are him.
If you let your children play with his children, you are him.
Even if you fight him, you are still him.
Dictatorship is a highly contagious disease, and no one within its realm stays untouched.
BUT one glorious day, it is gone.
Halleluyah! We Are Saved And Redeemed!
We can go back to be our great good selves!

Because it was just him. Or maybe few scoundrels and misled simpletons, who are already dangling from the lamposts or hiding in Argentina.
We were never part of it. True?
TRUE?

Not. It was not just him. It never was. It was us.


If you worked for him, you were him.
If you respected people who were him, you were him.
If you talked to your neighbour, who was him, you were him.
If you let your children play with his children, you were him.
Even if you fought him, still. You. Were. Him.
Unless you accept the fact, confront it, and find the way to control this resident evil in you, you will be just another asymptomatic carrier, waiting for just another "unexpected" outbreak. Which is going to happen.

A quotation from Samuel Johnson

Even the acquisition of knowledge is often much facilitated by the advantages of society: he that never compares his notions with those of others, readily acquiesces in his first thoughts, and very seldom discovers the objections which may be raised against his opinions; he, therefore, often thinks himself in possession of truth, when he is only fondling an errour long since exploded. He that has neither companions nor rivals in his studies, will always applaud his own progress, and think highly of his performances, because he knows not that others have equalled or excelled him. And I am afraid it may be added, that the student who withdraws himself from the world, will soon feel that ardour extinguished which praise or emulation had enkindled, and take the advantage of secrecy to sleep, rather than to labour.

Samuel Johnson (1709-1784) English writer, lexicographer, critic
Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126

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Johnson, Samuel - Essay (1754-01-19), The Adventurer, No. 126 | WIST Quotations

Even the acquisition of knowledge is often much facilitated by the advantages of society: he that never compares his notions with those of others, readily acquiesces in his first thoughts, and very seldom discovers the objections which may be raised against his opinions; he, therefore, often thinks himself in possession…

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A quotation from C. C. Colton

Power multiplies flatterers, and flatterers multiply our delusions by hiding us from ourselves.

Charles Caleb "C. C." Colton (1780-1832) English cleric, writer, aphorist
Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 25 (1822)

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Lacon: Or, Many Things in Few Words, Vol. 2, § 25 (1822) - Colton, Charles Caleb | WIST Quotations

Power multiplies flatterers, and flatterers multiply our delusions by hiding us from ourselves.

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A quotation from Erich Fromm

Most people are not even aware of their need to conform. They live under the illusion that they follow their own ideas and inclinations, that they are individualists, that they have arrived at their opinions as the result of their own thinking — and that it just happens that their ideas are the same as those of the majority. The consensus of all serves as a proof for the correctness of “their” ideas.

Erich Fromm (1900-1980) American psychoanalyst and social philosopher
The Art of Loving, ch. 2 (1956)

More about this quote: wist.info/fromm-erich/80468/

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The Art of Loving, ch. 2 (1956) - Fromm, Erich | WIST Quotations

Most people are not even aware of their need to conform. They live under the illusion that they follow their own ideas and inclinations, that they are individualists, that they have arrived at their opinions as the result of their own thinking -- and that it just happens that their…

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